Dayton gunman had 'rape' and 'hit' list of victims, former classmates say. Mother of El Paso suspect called the police about his 'AK' type firearm: Our view

For a prime example of how "red flag" laws might prevent some mass shootings, consider the savagery of gunman Nikolas Cruz of Parkland, Florida.

Dozens of threatening signals were flashing about the once-expelled high school student who would later confess to gunning down 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. One blatant tipoff: a YouTube posting by a "nikolas cruz" vowing "to be a professional school shooter."

No one did anything.

Red flag laws allow a court to issue an extreme-risk protection order for temporary confiscation of firearms from people deemed a grave risk to themselves or others. A judge acts only after careful, due process consideration.

►Weeks before the El Paso shooting, according to CNN, the mother of alleged gunman Patrick Crusius, 21, called police about her concerns that her son owned an "AK" type weapon. If Texas had a red flag law, the police could have advised her about a legal pathway for having that gun taken away.

Red flag laws are far from a panacea. There were no signals before Stephen Paddock set up a sniper's nest in a Las Vegas high-rise in 2017 and gunned down 58 people and himself in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. To this day, police do not know his motivation.

Even so, providing federal money to help states implement these laws — a concept with expressed support from President Donald Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other leading Republicans — would be a bipartisan baby step toward the broader types of changes needed, such as universal background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Even a modest change on protection orders is worth doing. It would still constitute the toughest gun law by Congress in years. It would usefully shatter the National Rifle Association's aura of invincibility. And it just might save lives.

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